Allergic Living » workplace rightshttp://allergicliving.com
The magazine for those living with food allergies, celiac disease, asthma and pollen allergies.Tue, 03 Mar 2015 18:40:08 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.8.1Scents and Your Rights at Workhttp://allergicliving.com/2010/07/02/scent-free-workplace-rights/
http://allergicliving.com/2010/07/02/scent-free-workplace-rights/#commentsFri, 02 Jul 2010 18:17:11 +0000http://allergicliving.ds566.alentus.com/?p=348During renovations, S.C. Johnson and Son gave a choice to its employees, some of whom have asthma and environmental allergies: they could work from home or transfer to a desk elsewhere within the Brantford, Ontario headquarters. The idea was to prevent susceptible staff from being exposed to the dust, paint fumes and other irritants that would be in the air.

The company, makers of well-known household products such as Ziploc, Windex, Shout, Pledge and Raid, is known to be accommodating, especially when it comes to employees’ health. S.C. Johnson and Son has nursing staff available to each of its two manufacturing plants and two sales offices across the country. There is a central medical centre that can refer employees to specialists, and will make recommendations to the employee’s manager and the human resource team on how to best accommodate the person’s needs.

For example, if a worker in a manufacturing plant has a sensitivity to a fragrance, the company might move that person to a different production line. The company cafeteria also has clear signs and menus to protect people with food allergies.

“We are 100 per cent behind our employees at all times,” says Leslie Duncan, a human resources manager with the Canadian division of the company. That level of commitment has earned S.C. Johnson a spot on many “top places to work” lists around the world. Unfortunately, the caring corporate culture is not universal.

Chris Haromy, a respiratory therapist and certified asthma and COPD educator with the Ontario Lung Association, fields many calls from frustrated staffers who are having asthmatic reactions at the office. Often, they are having symptoms from colleagues’ use of scented products.

“They say, “I’ve put the posters up, the company has sent out e-mails and communications about it, and people are still wearing perfume,’” he says. There is such a wide gulf between companies that accommodate and those that won’t, or where fellow employees won’t comply, that it can be hard for the employee with asthma or severe environmental allergies to know what his or her rights are.

The first step for the employee is to talk to his or her union (if applicable) and manager to try to come up with a solution. But if that fails, the good news is, there is recourse.

Allergic Living finds that under human rights legislation in Canada, companies are legally obligated to accommodate people with disabilities, and asthma, allergy, and even sensitivity to fragrance are considered disabilities.

For instance, the Saskatchewan Human Rights Tribunal ruled that there was cause to investigate the complaint of a casino worker for the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority who had lost her job because she wasn’t able to work in a smoke-filled environment.

The question of what management is required to do to accommodate staff with respiratory complaints, however, will depend on the size and resources of the company, as well as the magnitude of the change the employee is seeking.

Risks and Rights

There are many risks in the workplace for employees with asthma or environmental allergies. The office may have old, dusty carpets, mold or off-gassing from furniture. Scented products, either on other employees or from cleaning supplies and air fresheners, can set off asthma attacks in those with the disease. “Asthma in the workplace is pretty common,” says Dr. Jeremy Beach, an associate professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Alberta who has researched occupational asthma.

“You can get asthma because you’ve had it since you were a kid and you’re exposed to something at work that triggers an attack. Or you can get asthma that first develops because of an allergy to something at work. The classic examples would be people doing jobs like auto body repair work or working in a laboratory with animals.”

Whatever the cause, Canada’s broad definition of disability will apply. “Basically, the question is, ‘do you have something that could possibly be considered a disability?’” says Cara Wilkie, a Toronto-based lawyer at Bakerlaw, a firm that specializes in disability law and human rights. If the answer is ‘yes,’ then a human rights commission will “stop looking at whether you have a disability, and just look at what you might need as a result,” she says.

If an employee feels his or her asthma or allergy is not being accommodated at work, that employee has the right to file a complaint with the province’s human rights commission. (In the case of an employee of the federal government, a crown corporation or in a federally regulated industry, such as a bank, the complaint would go to the Canadian Human Rights Commission.)

The process varies with each commission, but generally, a lawyer is not needed at the early stages. Most commissions will conduct an initial investigation, or series of interviews, to determine whether the complaint has merit.

]]>http://allergicliving.com/2010/07/02/scent-free-workplace-rights/feed/0Allergies at Work: How to Stay Safe and Happyhttp://allergicliving.com/2010/06/30/allergies-work-on-the-job-with-allergies/
http://allergicliving.com/2010/06/30/allergies-work-on-the-job-with-allergies/#commentsWed, 30 Jun 2010 23:53:35 +0000http://allergicliving.ds566.alentus.com/?p=48It was the afternoon of Rob Kania’s first day on the job at a marketing firm. Everyone was gathered for a celebration of a colleague’s birthday. The person being feted started handing out slices of cake. Kania said “no thanks” to a piece, and his new colleague looked taken aback. Her look said: “Who is this rude guy?”

Kania, who lives in Victoria, remembers this incident two years ago as “horrible”; he had wanted to make a good impression on the first day. He turned down the birthday cake because of his peanut allergy, but Kania, then 21, didn’t say that. “There were 30 bigwigs standing around and I did not want to be out of place.” In hindsight, it would have better if he had just been upfront about his condition.

Kania’s awkwardness with allergy in an office situation is hardly unusual. While great strides are being made in spreading allergy awareness and precautions in the schools, there is much less support and few allergy-friendly policies in the grownup working world of the business lunch, the office party (with its trays of mystery hors d’oeuvres) and the catered conference. Allergic Living spoke to employees with both food and environmental allergies in a variety of professions to discover how they coped on the job. Some are vocal with their bosses and colleagues about their conditions, but many are not.

Those with environmental allergies or asthma triggers (ranging from dust and mould to VOC paints and other chemicals) often suffer their symptoms in silence in their workplaces. And when it comes to food allergies, many who are at risk of anaphylaxis admit they have taken dangerous chances rather than stand out among their peers.

Raising the Subject

Tracy Hill had wanted to keep her allergies to fish and shellfish quiet at work, “whispered,” she says. Hill, 42, is a radiation therapist at a hospital in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Then one day at a conference, she had a life-threatening reaction to some Mexican food, resulting in an ambulance ride to the hospital. “That taught me a lesson,” she says. “Although I don’t like to draw attention to myself, it’s way better to have that conversation than have a big scene with an EpiPen in your leg and the stretcher coming.”

Dr. Mitch Persaud, a Saskatoon allergist, encourages patients to tell colleagues about their allergies from the get-go rather than waiting until they’re breaking out in hives and wheezing. He says some patients avoid doing so because they feel that their allergies are under control. “I don’t think that’s the approach,” he says. “Mistakes can occur any time.”

When a job requires working with customers, raising the topic of your allergies may require a degree of finesse. Peter Burnside, a 47-year-old Toronto salesman, travels continuously for work and eats as many as 15 meals a week in restaurants, often with clients. When his allergies to nuts, peanuts and barley come up, he tries to explain briefly and then steer the conversation back to his clients. “I wouldn’t want the first thing they think to be, ‘Hey, he’s allergic to nuts.’ Rather, ‘he’s got a great product’ – that’s what you want them to think.” Burnside adds: “You definitely don’t want to appear weak.”

Similarly, Colleen Serban, a 30-year-old photographer from Kenora, Ontario, told Allergic Living that she has to be concerned about whether her hayfever and asthma will cost her business. She strives to avoid photographing clients outdoors during the spring and fall because her medications sometimes cause her hands to shake. “I don’t want them to think I’m not able to do the job.” Serban also photographs weddings and feels embarrassed asking what’s on the menu for dinner shortly after she has landed a contract. She doesn’t want to leave the bride feeling: “I just hired her, and now she wants to decide what our meal is.”

June Traptow can relate. She, too, is a photographer and owns a studio in Red Deer, Alberta. Traptow, 49, has allergies and intolerances to nuts, dairy, gluten and eggs, and is often left scrambling for safe food at the catered events she attends to network with other business owners. She is concerned that when such peers and potential clients learn of her allergies, they may think she’s difficult to please. When they watch her at a meal – perhaps sending back a salad with croutons – some will also become paternal. “They want to look after my food problems, and that becomes an issue of credibility,” she says.

Dr. Donald Stark, an associate professor at the University of British Columbia and a Vancouver allergist, agrees that “people who don’t have allergies aren’t always particularly sympathetic to the allergy sufferer.” They may assume incorrectly, “it’s just a runny nose or a few hives, what are you making a big fuss about?” But he says the only safe route for the person with allergies and/or asthma is to get past the embarrassment and to inform bosses and colleagues about such a condition. Persaud, the Saskatoon allergist, advises the patient with food allergies to explain the allergy basics to co-workers in a pleasant and non-confrontational manner. He says it’s important to let them know that reactions can be life-threatening, and to ask for co-operation to avoid exposure to an allergen in the workplace. As well, he suggests that at least one other person in the office know where the allergic person keeps the epinephrine auto-injector.